ShareThisMANILA – The Supreme Court has upheld the indictment of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on electoral sabotage charges.
The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB), meanwhile, dismissed the bribery and corruption charges filed against Mrs. Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo in connection with the alleged manipulation of the 2004 election in Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Tawi-Tawi, Sultan Kudarat, and Cotabato City for insufficiency of evidence.
Former President Arroyo
Also cleared by the Ombudsman of the same criminal charges were former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, former Civil Aviation Authority of the Phililpines (CAAP) Director General and former Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) General Manager Alfonso Cusi. former PPA Manager Efren Ballozos, former Justice Secretary Adnes Devanadera, and former Shariah Circuit Court Judge Nagamura Moner.
The cases stemmed from the complaints filed by Pacasirang Batidor, Ahmare Balt Lucman Hadji Rashid Limbona, and Hadji Abdullah Dalidig.
The complainants alleged that the respondents distributed cash, provided 12 multi-cab vehicles, and the use of a helicopter to their political allies in the said provinces at the height of the election campaign.
However, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales found the evidence insufficient since “the complaint
contains bare allegations and pieces of evidence that are unsubscribed, unauthenticated, and recanted affidavits or statements.”
This developed as Mrs. Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, asked the anti-corruption court to junk a plunder case filed against him over a cancelled broadband network deal with China on the grounds that he was never a government official.
In testimony before the Fourth Division of the Sandiganbayan, Mr. Arroyo asserted that the anti-graft court had no jurisdiction over him because he was a private citizen.
In an en banc session Tuesday, the justices voted unanimously to dismiss the petition of Arroyo questioning the constitutionality of the charges filed by a joint panel from the Commission on Elections and the Justice Department.
The decision was written by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta.
A source said all justices agreed during deliberations that the petition was moot and academic since the trial had already begun, with Arroyo pleading not guilty in her arraignment.
According to the source, the justices also said the creation of the joint Comelec-Justice Department panel was legal and dismissed Mrs. Arroyo’s assertion that the preliminary investigation violated the poll body’s independence.
The source said most of the justices believed that the Justice Department was merely deputized by the poll body, which still had control and supervision over the preliminary investigation.
The justices noted that it was the Comelec that filed the case before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court.
The tribunal also junked Mrs. Arroyo’s argument that the joint probe violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution since it singled out certain persons and incidents in the 2004 and 2007 polls.
Four justices – Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Roberto Abad and Jose Catral-Mendoza – dissented, pointing out that the preliminary investigation was unconstitutional since the Comelec alone had power to investigate election offenses.
The Supreme Court conducted oral arguments on the case in November and December last year after Mrs. Arroyo was arrested on Nov. 18, just a few hours after the Comelec filed a criminal case before the Pasay court.